Gaza Aid Flotilla With 1,000 Passengers, Tons Of Supplies Poised To Sail – As IDF Awaits
A flotilla of ships packed with a thousand activists, human rights observers and more than 5,500 tons of food and medical supplies is ready to sail from Istanbul to for Gaza. To do so, they’ll need the Turkish government to let them leave the port, and then run the risk of being subjected to a deadly Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attack — as their predecessors were in an infamous 2010 incident.
“The Freedom Flotilla has the support of millions around the world who are outraged at the failure of our governments to protect the Palestinians people from Israel’s genocidal actions, including the deliberate starvation of over two million people,” said the organizing coalition’s Zohar Chamberlain-Regev.
The group has three ships ready to go: one packed with food and medical supplies, and two ships for passengers who hail from 40 different countries. The cargo ship also has eight ambulances and a fire truck aboard — a grim reminder of the IDF’s Nov 3 bombing of an ambulance convoy next to Al-Shifa hospital that killed 15 and wounded dozens.
CodePink’s Medea Benjamin is among those hoping to set sail, but says she’s worries about diplomatic interference. “The Turkish government might cave to pressure from Israel, the United States and Germany, and prevent the boats from even leaving Istanbul,” she wrote on Tuesday.
“We expect that Turkey will not be bought off and we will indeed sail,” Palestinian-American human rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf optimistically said at a press conference hosted on one of the ships. “Anything less than this is collaborating with the illegal siege on Gaza, and we don’t think that is what the Turkish government will do.”
While the IDF has said little, an Israeli news outlet reported that the Israeli military has already started “security preparations” for commandeering the flotilla. In an infamous 2010 incident, the IDF killed 10 activists aboard a Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel, the Mavi Marmara.
With that precedent in mind, organizers have been giving volunteers “non-violence training” and educating them on what the Israeli forces may use on them — such as tear gas and concussion grenades.
